Black Humans in Faerun?

[Lukon]

I've gone through both the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting and Races of Faerun, and I am having a difficult time telling if there is a cultural with an African basis within the setting. With fantasy conventions as they are, I'm used to the dissapointment, but I'd love to be wrong, so I'll set the question to the crowd:

Are there black people in Faerun? And if so, are they spear-toting, uncivilized tribespeople like the fantasy community seems to prefer?

[Layna]

I just googled this thread, which might be useful for you

[Aran]

Chult my friend, and many cultures that are near that and came before it.

[Kelemvor]

I once had a link to a very useful article about the various geographical regions of Faerun and how they linked with our modern world's cultures and races.

The Moonshaes were vikings and celts, Waterdeep, the Sword Coast and Heartlands mostly Western European, Amn more latin, Calim a version of Arabia, Anauroch and Mulhorand Egyptian.

As Wotc introduced more land masses and wider populations, this theme continued though I never saw anything definitive to indicate it was deliberate.

So Chult became an obvious African jungle environment, Maztica a South American Aztec-Inca like civilization, then there are the oriental cultures in the far east of Toril and Indian cultures in Durpar. The Shaar is a vast rolling savannah, so there might well be African influences there also I think.

Races of Faerun goes into some detail about the various human cultures and is a good starting point, the Myth Drannor set of sites have one for humans, I forget the name now.

We have had black characters in various guises on FK... amazons, Chultians, a zulu-like Saiyaddaran and several non-specific dark-skinned gentlemen.

I think any region from the Shining South down could feasibly be a starting location.

[Nicolya]

I belive as well the Turmish were described as tall mahogany skinned peoples. They live down by the Vilhoun Reach.

Also with Chessenta being more of an Ancient Greek archtype and Mulhourand being Ancient Egypt, there is your like for various degrees of olive to dusky to ebony skin tones and all in between.

[Sindri]

Here's that Myth Drannor section on humans: http://myth-drannor.net/DlabraddathNet/z-Edain/Main.htm

Unfortunately I don't think they have a culture similar to Africa listed there, but it's definitely not a comprehensive list.

[Larethiel]

In the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting is an article concerning humans in general and which goes into the different humans with their different outward appearences, too. It says that there are humans with nearly black skin as well as of nearly all other shades of possible skin-colors. On a continent like Faerûn with all its countries and landscapes it's only natural to have different types of human subraces and looks.
Hope this helps

[Lukon]

Thanks, all. It seems the Chultans are the culture I was looking for. I just hope they're more complex than the snippets I found online. Some nutter theocracy of tribes hidden in a jungle...not exactly awe-inspiring. But I'm not complaining...about that.


I will say the use of descriptors is intentionally vague. Dark-skinned = arabic/middle eastern? That makes little sense, except from a caucasian perspective. We get odd tones like mahogany (used to describe the Turk-inspired Turmish), nut brown (to describe Native-American types of skin tone) and ebony(the only reliable descriptor I can find for black people). Is there a rule against using the word 'black', since shades of brown tend to refer to those of Arabic, North African, indigenous American, or even Indian descent?

My pet peeve with fantasy. Even if there are people of African basis (no small feat, considering the way history went - NOTE: Not a complaint.), it's often hard to get past the PC doubletalk to recognize it.

Last thing: I empathize with European types of characters just fine. It's just hard to be a black fantasy fan sometimes, with no real way to frame a character on your looks without being 'the weird guy' or 'from that weird , barely in-setting place'. I wonder if people of other ancestries have this problem?

[Nicolya]

Here is why I suggested Turmish


He's a Turmish Sorcerer.

As for the Middle-Eastern comment - I was more leaning to Mulhorand because some of the southern and eastern sections of the Empire are described as the residents having darker skintones.

Something else you might consider too is the Shaar, as what I recall of it off hand it's a rather wide savanna type place, sort of akin to the africian safaris.

Chult to me seems more Amazon rainforest, just with darker skintones. I could be off base here, but that is how I've read it as.

[Ninde]

I will say the use of descriptors is intentionally vague. Dark-skinned = arabic/middle eastern? That makes little sense, except from a caucasian perspective. We get odd tones like mahogany (used to describe the Turk-inspired Turmish), nut brown (to describe Native-American types of skin tone) and ebony(the only reliable descriptor I can find for black people). Is there a rule against using the word 'black', since shades of brown tend to refer to those of Arabic, North African, indigenous American, or even Indian descent?

Well, as I am being a Turkish, and having mahogany skin, I can say that it is pretty much a generalization that WOTC make. Most of people living in Anatolia has too much different roots, from Byzantine to Greek, Armenians etc. But the point is, the actual Turkish people came from the Middle Asia, and they have pale skin and dark hair. Going back to my mahogany skin, it has something to do with my Arab blood from my grandparents. So, usual Turkish type is, pale skin and dark hair, actually.
But over thousands of years, Turkey has pretty mixed blood lines. And in some other countries, like Azerbeijan, you can see how they actually look like. They have Japanese/Chinese like eyes and pale skin going toward a bit yellowish with dark hair.

[Kilak]

Lukon, I currently have a "black" character that I play. He is Zakaharan, or from the Al Qadim setting in the Forgotten Realms. That is the Arabian Nights/Sinbad type setting for the Realms. I run him as a nomad/tribal warrior. In the Sinbad type movies you always see black guards or slaves. I figured that if I was going to play a character like that, it would be one of the better cultures to come from.

[Jedan]

Haroun is more or less supposed to be black, "cinnamon-skinned", from Tashalar. But the FR source material isn't very clear, it variously describes Tashalans as "olive-skinned" or "cinnamon-skinned", meanwhile in the picture from IIRC FRCS they are rather clearly black.

From Serpent Kingdoms I believe the culture is sort of an Egyptian/South American mix.

[Lukon]

Thanks for all of this awesome information, guys.

I just wish there were more accurate descriptors of skin tones, sometimes. But I have what I need now.

[Kilak]

Lukon, I'll try and physically go through my huge 2nd edition Forgotten Realms collection and see if I can get a description for you. Once I find something I'll either post it here or talk to you next time I see you online.